CHAPTER II
Socrates begins his story. Hippocrates called on him at an early
hour and entreated him to apply to Protagoras on his behalf.
1.
ἔτι βαθέος ὄρθρου. ὄρθρος βαθύς is the period just before
daybreak:
ὄρθρος is the morning twilight, and
βαθύς implies that
it was more dark than light:
Crito, 43A. A similar use of
βαθύς
is seen in the expressions
βαθεῖα νύξ and
βαθεῖα ἑσπέρα.
2.
Ἱπποκράτης—Φάσωνος δὲ ἀδελφός. Hippocrates is
known only from this dialogue.
δέ without preceding
μέν is
regular in such twofold descriptions of a person: Sauppe refers
to
Aesch. Pers. 151 μήτηρ βασιλέως, βασίλεια δ᾽ ἐμή and
Hdt. VII.
10 πατρὶ τῷ σῷ, ἀδελφεῷ δὲ ἐμῷ Δαρείῳ, ἠγόρευον. The use of
δέ
in
μᾶλλον δέ=‘vel potius’ is the same.
4.
ᾔει ἐπειγόμενος. So BT: neither in the 3rd singular of
such forms nor elsewhere do Plato's MSS. always avoid hiatus.
Schanz (vol. XII, p. XV) would insert the
ν ἐφελκυστικόν in such
forms before a vowel, unless a pause follows.
7.
Ἱπποκράτης, ἔφην, οὗτος. We have followed Heindorf
in printing a full stop after
οὗτος. Heindorf (following Ficinus)
correctly takes the words as an aside; Socrates recognises
Hippocrates by his voice. The neuter comparative of
νέος
regularly implies that the new is worse than the old: see on
Euthyphr. 2A.
8.
εἰ μὴ ἀγαθά γε. Compare
Ar. Knights, 186 μῶν ἐκ
καλῶν εἶ κἀγαθῶν; μὰ τοὺς θεούς, εἰ μὴ 'κ πονηρῶν γε and Blaydes
in loc. The idiom originally meant ‘unless by
νεώτερα you mean
ἀγαθά’, which would be a contradiction in terms, since
νεώτερον
is
κακόν. Preceded by
οὐδέν it has come to mean little more than
‘except good’.
11.
πρῴην: see
309Dτρίτην γε ἤδη ἡμέραν.
12.
ἑσπέρας γε:
χθές is unnecessary, as the Athenians
counted the interval between two sunsets as one day (Kroschel,
referring to Varro,
ap. Gell.
Noct. Att. III. 2. 4).
ἐπιψηλαφήσας τοῦ σκίμποδος. The
σκίμπους was a low
stool or bed. According to a scholiast on
Ar. Clouds, 254, the
word means properly a ‘lame stool’ (
χωλὸν κραββάτιον) and is
connected with
σκιμπάζειν =
χωλαίνειν. ἐπιψηλαφῶ is followed by
the accusative where it does not (as here) contain the idea of
search for, e.g. in
Rep. II. 360A (
ἐπιψηλαφῶντα τὸν δακτύλιον).
14.
Οἰνόης. Oenoe (probably = the Wine-country) was a
δῆμος in the
φυλὴ Ἱπποθοωντίς, near Eleutherae, on the road to
Thebes. The slave had endeavoured to escape across the
frontier into Boeotia. There was another
δῆμος of the same
name near Marathon, belonging to the
φυλὴ Αἰαντίς.
17.
ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἦλθον. For this sense of
ἔρχομαι (‘come back’）
Heindorf quotes Lysias
ὑπὲρ Μαντιθέου § 4
ἀλλ᾽ ἤλθομεν πρὶν τοὺς
ἀπὸ Φυλῆς εἰς τὸν Πειραιᾶ κατελθεῖν πρότερον πένθ᾽ ἡμέραις.
18.
ἀδελφός. So (not
ἁδελφός) the MSS. The article is not
rarely omitted with names denoting relation, as we usually omit
it with ‘father’ and ‘mother’. See Kühner's
Griechische Grammatik, 11, 522. The force of
ἔτι is ‘late though it was’.
δέ is
commonly omitted after
ἔπειτα and
εἶτα: so below,
350Dπρῶτον
μὲν γάρ—ἔπειτα;
Symp. 211A πρῶτον μὲν ἀεὶ ὄν—ἔπειτα οὐ τῇ μὲν
καλόν, τῇ δ᾽ αἰσχρόν.
20.
πόρρω τῶν νυκτῶν. The plural is idiomatic: cf.
Symp.
217D
διελεγόμην ἀεὶ πόρρω τῶν νυκτῶν;
Ar. Clouds, 2 ὦ Ζεῦ
βασιλεῦ τὸ χρῆμα τῶν νυκτῶν ὅσον. So
μέσαι νύκτες for ‘midnight’.
In quibus loquendi formulis remarks Heindorf ‘
νύκτες
horas nocturnas denotant’.
21.
ὁ ὕπνος ἀνῆκεν is modelled on Homer (e.g.
Il. II. 71 ἐμὲ
δὲ γλυκὺς ὕπνος ἀνῆκεν), but Plato gives a different turn to
ἀνῆκεν by adding
ἐκ τοῦ κόπου, where
ἐκ is ‘from’, not ‘after’
(as Stallbaum thinks). Note presently that
οὕτω to introduce the
apodosis after participles is especially common in Plato: cf.
below,
314C 326D
23.
ἀνδρείαν. ἀνδρεῖος occurs in much the same sense in
Meno, 81D οὐδὲν κωλύει—τἄλλα πάντα αὐτὸν ἀνευρεῖν, ἐάν τις
ἀνδρεῖος ᾗ καὶ μὴ ἀποκάμνῃ ζητῶν. σοί is emphatic and should
therefore be accented, like
σέ in l. 28.
24.
ἀδικεῖ. ἀδικεῖν is often used of a past injury because the
injury is regarded as continuing till atonement is made: see on
Crito, 50C.
27.
ἂν αὐτῷ διδῷς ἀργύριον καὶ πείθῃς ἐκεῖνον. For the
variation of pronouns cf.
Euthyphr. 14D ἀλλά μοι λέξον τίς αὕτη
ἡ ὑρηπεσία ἐστί τοῖς θεοῖς; αἰτεῖν τε φῂς αὐτοὺς καὶ διδόναι
ἐκείνοις; above,
309B and below,
318C The change is most
frequent where the second pronoun is different in case from the
first: cf. Classen on Thuc. I. 132. 5. Cobet ejects the words
καὶ
πείθῃς ἐκεῖνον, but they are supported by the parallel expression of
311Dἂν μὲν ἐξικνῆται τὰ ἡμέτερα χρήματα καὶ τούτοις πείθωμεν
αὐτόν.
28.
ὦ Ζεῦ καὶ θεοί: i.e.
καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι θεοί. The exclamation is
common: see Blaydes on
Ar. Plutus, I.
29.
ἐν τούτῳ εἴη. Cf.
354Eand
356Dεἰ οὖν ἐν τούτῳ ἡμῖν ἦν
τὸ εὖ πράττειν.
30.
οὔτε τῶν φίλων. The English idiom would lead us to
expect
οὔτε τῶν τῶν φίλων: but in Greek the double article is
avoided by substituting ‘my friends’ for ‘my friends' property’.
Analogous is the usage known as
comparatio compendiaria, e.g.
κόμαι Χαρίτεσσιν ὁμοῖαι (
Il. XVII. 51), where ‘the Graces’ is put
for ‘the Graces' hair’.
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὰ ταῦτα. See on
Apol. 23B.
ταῦτα =
διὰ ταῦτα is
frequent in Plato and Aristophanes.
34.
ὅτε τὸ πρότερον ἐπεδήμησεν. Probably about 445 B.C.,
if the date of action of the dialogue is 433-432. (See Introduction p. xxxiii.) Protagoras went to Thurii in 443 B.C., being
charged by Pericles to draw up a code of laws for the new
colony.
38.
Καλλίᾳ τῷ Ἱππονίκου. Callias, son of Hipponicus,
belonged to one of the richest families in Athens (below,
337Dαὐτῆς τῆς πόλεως—τὸν μέγιστον καὶ ὀλβιώτατον οἶκον τόνδε). His
devotion to the ‘Sophists’ in general is remarked upon in
Apol. 20A ἀνδρὶ ὃς τετέλεκε χρήματα σοφισταῖς πλείω ἢ ξύμπαντες
οἱ ἄλλοι, Καλλίᾳ τῷ Ἱππονίκου (cf.
Crat. 391B): but he seems to
have been particularly attached to the doctrines of Protagoras:
see
Theaet. 164E οὐ γὰρ ἐγώ, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον Καλλίας
ὁ Ἱππονίκου τῶν ἐκείνου (i.e.
Πρωταγόρου λόγων)
ἐπίτροπος. One
of his two sons (
Apol. 20A), Protarchus, appears as an interlocutor in the
Philebus. In 393-392 Callias was associated with
Iphicrates in the command of the Athenian forces at Corinth,
and as late as 371 we find him acting as ambassador to Sparta
(Xen.
Hell. VI. 4). It appears that he spent all his money and
died in actual want (Athenaeus, XII. 52).
39.
μήπω, ὠγαθέ. The MSS. have
μήπω ἀγαθέ: probably
the archetype had
μήπωγαθέ, by a natural mistake. Cobet rejects
ἐκεῖσε ἴωμεν, reading
μήπω γε, on the ground that with
μήπω γε
the Greek idiom does not repeat the verb: but there is no proof
that the verb could not be expressed with
μήπω (without
γε).
40.
δεῦρο ἐξαναστῶμεν εἰς τὴν αὐλήν. Herwerden needlessly suggests that
ἐξαναστάντες should be read, or
εἰς τὴν
αὐλήν rejected:
εἰς τὴν αὐλήν goes with
ἐξαναστῶμεν: cf.
ἐμὲ δὲ
δεῖ ποι ἐξαναστῆναι in
Theages, 129B.
δεῦρο we should translate
by ‘here’: ‘let us rise and go out into the court here’. Classic
Greek does not admit of
τῇδε in such a case: see Cobet's
Novae
Lectiones, p. 91.
